These pages are included in the Nile
Abyssinians site to provide general Australian information for overseas but also
Australian visitors. We begin with our complex situation regarding governing/registering
bodies, of which there are many. Just remember that Australia is a relatively recent
(about 100 years) federation of states, and believes in competition, and you can guess
what comes next!

Our
governing bodiesare
state-based; each of the six states has at least two competing bodies, and each of the two
territories has one. As a general rule, they recognize each other's titles and
registrations, with the limitation that if certain breeds, colours or varieties are not
accepted by a given association, then they cannot be re-registered with it.

There are two "umbrella" co-ordinating
bodies, and each
of the individual governing bodies is affiliated with one, but only one, of these. Such
fraternal governing bodies often recognize even each other's Challenges, these being adult
open class win certificates which are prerequisites for Champion and higher awards. Here
now is a picture.

Importing cats to Australia can be
quite complex, though we can now import from most countries with just 30 days'
quarantine, provided that the right procedures and preparations were undertaken.
The requirements vary by country of origin, and can all be obtained from
AQIS (Australian Quarantine Inspection Service), which is located within the Australian Department of Agriculture and Water Resources. Information
on cat importation can be found at http://www.agriculture.gov.au/cats-dogs

For each council, the co-ordinating body affiliation is given in
square brackets. International telephone numbers are given; overseas callers should replace the "+" by their
international access digits (e.g., 011 in the US); Australian callers should replace the
"+61" by 0.